Ocearch photo of Lydia
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“Lydia” is a 2000 lb 14' 6'' (4.4 meters) great white shark who is making her way past the north of The Bahamas today (March 6th), according to the ocean research group OCEARCH.
Lydia is no stranger to these waters, having passed this way once before, and this pass happens to be around the same time as her 2-year tagging anniversary.
Lydia was tagged near Jacksonville, Florida on March 3rd, 2013 and she's tracked some 34,238 miles since. Her arrival in the UK in 2014 made her the first every great white recorded to have crossed the Atlantic
Ocean.
According to their tracking, Lydia is north of the The Bahamas Islands as of this morning:
A National Geographic report states, “Researchers had suspected great whites could make such a journey,
but none had previously been documented doing so,” referring to Lydia’s transatlantic journey.
“The
shark now also holds the distinction of traveling the farthest of any
known great white,” said the report.”This champion swimmer blew past
the previous record holder, a female that swam from South Africa to
western Australia and back—crossing the Indian Ocean both ways, for a
total of 12,427 miles in 2004.”
OCEARCH is a non-profit organization with a global
reach for unprecedented research on great white sharks and other large
apex predators. In a collaborative environment established by Founding
Chairman and Expedition Leader Chris Fischer, OCEARCH enables leading
researchers and institutions to generate previously unattainable data on
the movement, biology and health of sharks to protect their future
while enhancing public safety and education.
OCEARCH is a leader in open source research, sharing
data in near-real time for free through the Global Shark Tracker,
enabling students and the public to learn alongside PhDs. The
Landry’s-developed STEM Education Curriculum, based on the Global Shark
Tracker and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), is being launched
for grades 6-8 in the fall of 2013 nationwide.
Over 50 researchers from more than 20 institutions
have collaborated with OCEARCH to date with over three dozen research
papers in process or completed. Research expeditions are conducted
worldwide aboard the M/V OCEARCH, which serves as both a mothership and
at-sea laboratory. Utilizing a custom 75,000 lb. capacity hydraulic
platform designed to safely lift mature sharks for access by a
multi-disciplined research team, up to 12 studies are conducted in
approximately 15 minutes on a live mature shark. Powered by five Cat
engines, the M/V OCEARCH is capable of Global Circumnavigation.
OCEARCH expeditions – through the support of
Caterpillar and other partners such as Costa, Yamaha, Contender, SAFE
boats and Mustad – generate satellite tracks and other forms of data for
sharks, with planned expansion to other species in the future.
Seventeen research expeditions have been conducted to date, with seven
more scheduled through the end of 2015.
2am March 6th tracking view
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Ocearch photo of Lydia
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Check their current Tracking
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